What Do You Want Me To Do For You?

All right.

It is great to see everybody this morning, especially on a morning like this.

And my name is Russ.

I'm one of the pastors here at Church at the Grove, and we're so glad you're here.

I hope your summer has gone great.

I hope uh the family transition uh this past week.

Some of you might be this week uh for your children going back to school or you starting your uh education process with your kids.

Um it's just great to see everybody out on the morning than we didn't think we'd see anybody, uh, especially at early service.

But let's dive in.

We're um today's kind of a standalone uh message, so we're not really in a series, but next week you come back, we'll jump into a brand new series called The Table, and we'll talk more about that.

But let me just start with this.

You can tell a lot about a person by what they ask for.

You can tell a lot about a person by listening to what they ask for.

And we've just finished this crazy summer schedule that seems to get shorter and shorter, or has gotten shorter and shorter, and so which means you you have to cram more and more into a shorter time.

So it's it's a different schedule, but it can still be hectic and busy.

And and and your kids have to adjust back to a normal life now, and maybe the fact that they they don't have the front same freedoms.

And so what what happens with that?

When you when you move into a little more structure, kids are not accustomed uh to not be able to get what they asked for.

And kids ask for a lot.

I mean, am I is it the same as when I was my kids were younger?

That it's just kind of ingrained in them.

Can I or siblings, can we?

Because once we had two, we could tell they're gonna work together.

And then we had our third, and we're like, we're outnumbered.

And and the numbers are to their favor.

And so they asked for a lot of things.

What do they ask for?

What do kids ask for?

Money, food, toys, go-karts or just older toys, video games, can we stay up late?

Can we have a snack?

Can we watch TV?

Can we go to Disney World?

And then they say, the last question is, can I have an ice cream?

And then you're you're like, ice cream?

Absolutely.

Over Disney World.

But they were planning that the whole way.

And so we so why would I bring up things that we ask for, things that our kids ask for?

And here's the big idea for this morning.

What you ask for shapes the story that God wants to write through you.

What you ask for shapes the story that he writes through you.

God is writing his story.

He's given us the blueprints and the plans for our life, and then he invites us into the journey.

The journey.

And part of that is listening to our desires and our affections and bringing them all in unison together with God's desires and God's will and what God's mission has been declared.

And so, as I said, we're we're we're kind of today is a one one sermon series, and it's uh gonna come out of Mark chapter 10.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

If you've got your Bibles, turn to Mark chapter 10, it's gonna be our primary spot to camp out.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

And um Jesus is nearing the end of his time on earth.

He's already performed several miracles, he's given powerful messages, he's given his sermon on the mount.

Um, he's he's made a lot of religious leaders already furious before he even gets to the end of his life.

So they're traveling to Jerusalem where Jesus knows that he's gonna take his final breaths before he ascends to the Father.

And so as they're traveling up to Jerusalem, Jesus comes into contact and has encounters with several different people.

Among them, he blesses the children who are coming to him.

Children in this culture were not valued near like they are valued in our world today, especially in our American culture.

We, you know, thank goodness, and we should we should value our children.

We should understand the importance of how we raise them.

And here's what Jesus says, though.

He's leading his disciples, walking his disciples.

He knows they're watching, they're listening.

And so here's what he says in Mark chapter 10, verse 15.

Mark 10:15

He says, Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.

Who does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.

And so I want you to get that.

I don't want to move through this too fast.

He's saying, listen, the kingdom of God comes by faith and the faith of a child who has a simple, who has a simple approach about things.

It's not a lot of detail in it.

They don't need blueprints, they don't need to know every little step.

But but he says, hey, the kingdom of God is like a little child who has simple faith.

And if you don't have the faith of a little child, it's not saying you won't enjoy having it.

It's not saying you um uh you know that you'll never enter it uh, you know, without good faith.

What he's saying is he's saying, listen, you you can't you can't go into this next life while you're still cherishing all of the things of this life.

And he goes on to say in verse 23 how hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.

And here comes this these next two disciples challenge Jesus and confront him with a private request.

And he doesn't spend a lot of time, but he does explain and teach and interact in a way that hopefully communicates his message and his mission.

And he says, I'm gonna I'm gonna ask in these two encounters that we're looking at, Jesus asked the same question at the end of each encounter.

And the question is this What do you want me to do for you?

What do you want me to do for you?

And take a second, write that question there.

If you're a note taker, that's a question to write down.

Everything hinges off that question.

What do you want me to do for you?

In verses 35 and 37 of Mark 10, it says, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, approached him and said, Teacher, we want you to do whatever we ask you.

And he asked the question.

Jesus asked the question, what do you want me to do for you?

Can we read that question together out loud?

One, two, three.

What do you want me to do for you?

He asked him.

And they answered him, allow us to sit at your right and at your left and glory.

We want to sit at your right and your left hand and glory.

And see, you can tell a lot about a person by what they asked for.

So, what are James and John asking for?

They're asking for a shared position with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

They're asking to share throne space.

They're asking to really for Jesus to disperse his glory to them.

What do they really want?

Power?

Attention?

Position?

I heard that?

Recognition?

Honor and recognition.

Yeah, they want, they want the seat of honor.

They want the seat of honor.

So what do you want me to do for you?

And then they come back and share.

We, you know, we want to sit at your right hand and your left hand in your glory.

So it sounds real spiritual.

You know, I'm thinking about heaven.

Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things to be added.

I mean, I could justify my response.

We can all come up with justification for our our responses, our behavior, how we how we do things, why we do things.

And so, but these guys, you really can't hide.

This is brash.

This is this is bold.

Now, I do appreciate their boldness.

Man, go for it.

Um, but I don't see a heart of surrender.

I mean, Jesus has talked about his imminent death.

And so James and John are confusing the rule of Jesus and the kingdom of God, moving from this world to the next.

They're confusing it just like another request or another transition in life.

And Jesus rebukes them.

He said, They don't know what they're asking for.

Look at verse 41.

When the ten disciples heard this, they began to be indignant with James and John.

Jesus called them over and said to them, You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions act as tyrants over them.

But it is not so among you.

On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you will be your servant.

And whoever wants to be first among you will be a slave to all.

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

I don't know if there's more counterculture messages in the Bible than this.

This flies directly in the face of what James and John are asking for.

When they are asking to share the glory, to share in the rule, to share in the reign, a position of power, a position of honor, a position of glory, that they and so Jesus is having to be very, very clear that my message is not like that.

That is not the message.

My message is not even like that, and it's not even in the same category as that.

My message is so counter-cultural.

My message, Jesus says, my mission and message are so radically upside down.

Read a book back in the 90s called the upside down kingdom.

The kingdom of God is the upside down kingdom.

Why?

Because if you want to be great, you serve.

If you want to be have big influence, you give of yourself in a huge way.

And so the men who have known Jesus should have known this message by now.

They should have grasped it.

And what it does, it confirms to me that I am not necessarily that much different than anybody else.

Because we all struggle with this.

We all need the reminder.

That's why we all come back and spend time in the Word.

Time listening and watching and paying attention to how Jesus interacts.

And here's what I think Jesus is getting at.

He said, the men who, see, the men who knew Jesus the best and the most are about to miss out.

And Jesus teaches and his life demonstrates that God's measure of greatness doesn't come by titles, positions, accomplishments.

It comes through serving.

God's measure of greatness does not come by a title, but by a towel.

And a towel that's willing to stoop and wash feet.

As a matter of fact, your rise to greatness, my rise to greatness begins when I begin to stoop and serve.

So your rise to greatness, you will rise to greatness.

You will raise the bar to what success is if we learn how to stoop and serve and wash feet.

I'm going to come back to this in a second, but let's look at verses 46 through 48.

It says they came to Jericho.

So you got that first encounter, right?

Jesus, James, and John.

We want to be great.

How can we be great in your kingdom and share in your power?

And Jesus flips it upside down and says, You model, you witness, you reflect my mission, my glory, who I am through serving others.

So he says in verse 46, they came to Jericho, and he was leaving Jericho, and he was leaving Jericho with his disciples in a large crowd.

Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the road.

When he heard this, when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.

Me warned him to keep quiet, but he was crying out all the more, have mercy on me, son of David.

Let's just say that last part together out loud.

Have mercy on me, son of David.

All right.

There's this busy place where they would have had this, had this meeting, you know, where Jesus encounters blind Barnabaias.

As they come into Jerusalem, they would have been preparing for the Passover celebration, and all these people are walking by.

It's a crowded city.

Imagine a metropolitan type setting in ancient times.

Um, and Barnabas is crying out.

That's how he survived.

He's blind, he can't work, he is limited in a lot of his abilities, and so he's been taught that the way you overcome is simply by asking for help.

And he cries out.

He cries out, and then and if you notice, people want to quiet him down.

This this guest visitor is coming in, there's a lot of attention on Jesus.

Barnabai is listen, it doesn't take a lot of study, it doesn't take a lot of discernment, it doesn't take a lot of theological expertise to understand what really is important to Barnamaeus.

What do you think is important to Barnamaeus?

He wants healing.

What does he want to do?

He wants to be able to see.

He wants to be able to see.

And so he cries out to Jesus.

And what does he put on display?

He puts on display this that a desperate heart opens heaven's ears.

A desperate heart opens heaven's ears.

I think a lot of us want to see something supernatural happen in our lives.

A lot of us want to see the power of God, the hand of God in our life.

Um, a lot of us don't know how to ask for what we really, really want, what is most important for us.

A lot of us don't know how to shift our desires and affections away from those things that are temporary and put our faith and our hope and our heart into the mission that God has given us.

So heaven, God does not want to keep heaven from us, he wants to release heaven to us.

So he's not hiding heaven from us.

He makes himself available and he draws a parallel through the teachings of Jesus and life of Jesus and everything we would study in the Old Testament.

He helps us understand and connect kingdom truth with our own personal desires and motivations.

And you've got to bring those together in unison to see God hear and answer your prayers and to work in you and through you to develop your story.

See, I'm I'm a professional.

So if I show up at a party or an event, whether it's family or church related, and we're in the South, and we're some of us, depending on our own backgrounds, we're used to potlucks and meals and eating together.

We all like that, right?

And so as a pastor, when I come to these gatherings, I'm often to pray.

I'm often asked to pray.

And it's a little bit comical because it's as if their prayers don't matter.

And because I'm a professional, that I have a more direct line.

So we there's this idea, you know, let's ask the pastor to pray.

And I know that's an easy thing to do, and I'm happy to pray because I like to pray.

I go to these settings, and people, people ask me to pray because they I'm he's pressured, he's the one that has a direct line.

No, no.

You know who's got a direct line to the Lord?

Anyone in Christ.

Anyone that's in Christ has the same access that I have to the presence and the person of Jesus Christ.

And so you take that and weave that into your desires and your affections, and your prayers become desperate cries to the Father, and they're not shallow into the pool prayers.

They're deep into the pool.

Spiritual growth, and your prayer is almost, your life and your mission are almost in unison with your prayers now.

You're beginning to move your prayers from being totally self-centered and me-centered to making your prayers mission-centered, God-centered, Jesus-centered.

And so Barnabas just keeps crying out.

He has revealed what is desperately desired, what he wants.

You see it right here, verse 49.

Jesus stopped and said, Call him.

Call him.

He's talking about Barnabas.

So they called the blind man and said to him, Have courage, get up, he's calling for you.

And he threw off his coat, jumped up, and came to Jesus.

He threw off his coat, jumped up, and came to Jesus.

So all of a sudden, he can get up and move around, and man, but you know what?

He's about to have his deepest desire revealed, his desperate cry revealed.

And Jesus asking the same question that he asked James and John.

What do you want me to do for you?

When you can ask that question and then contemplate and get down to the real answer.

It's okay to be honest with God.

He knows every thought.

He knows everything in your life.

He can see everything in your life.

He says, What do you want me to do for you?

And here's the question again.

Let's say it together.

Let's ask it together.

Ready?

One, two, three.

What do you want me to do?

For you?

It seems like a ridiculous question, doesn't it?

He's blind.

Isn't it obvious?

Jesus wants to know what's going on in our hearts.

He knows because he's omniscient, all-knowing, but he wants relationship.

Relationship defined would include healthy communication.

But you know, when it comes down to it, Barnamaeus, he just wants to see.

He wants to see.

Faith.

Faith is not silent.

Faith speaks out.

Jesus knew what his greatest need was, but he wanted to hear it vocalized.

He wanted to hear it asked through the mouth, through the lips of Barnabas himself.

And so he says, What do you want me to do for you?

Because Jesus wants us to name our need.

Jesus could have healed him without a word, but he wants Barnamaus to own his own request, to step out of anonymity, to step out of this private life, private faith, and to share this desire with the Lord, where others can hear.

And see, faith is not silent.

Faith speaks, faith cries out.

There's something powerful that happens when we reveal our deepest desires, good and bad, to the Lord.

The relationship, listen, this is why we use our earthly relationships.

They're a great example of some of these principles that work in a kingdom setting.

And so the blind man responds to this question really simple, with an answer that's really simple.

I want to see.

I want to see.

In verse 52, Jesus said to him, Go, your faith has saved you.

Immediately he could see and begin to follow Jesus on the road.

So Jesus didn't ask this man to, he didn't just give this man eyes to see physically.

His eyes were also open spiritually.

You see how that happened?

They're talking about physical things, and then that next verse says that your faith has saved you.

Your faith has gone down to the deepest part of who you really are.

And it has provided for you the justification, the salvation, a new identity.

You have a relationship with your Heavenly Father through the Son Jesus Christ, and through that you have hope and you have peace.

And hopefully, over time, as you seek first the kingdom of God, all the things that we used to ask for begin to just flow into our life out of the provision that God has.

And we don't have to worry about those things anymore that frees us up to focus more on the kingdom of God.

So let's step back for a second and look at these two stories side by side.

See, James and John came with polished requests.

Barnamaeus came with a desperate cry.

So James and John over here with a polished request.

They've been ready, they've been waiting.

Barnamaeus came with a desperate cry.

He honestly doesn't go through a lot of his normal spiel because he's just like, I want to see.

James and John were both insiders.

Barnamaeus was an outsider.

Talking about religious systems and the culture inside the nation of Israel and just them being the chosen people of God.

And so James and John wanted recognition and power.

Barnamaeus wanted mercy.

That was his cry.

Son of David, have mercy on me.

James and John's prayer was about their position.

Barnamaus's prayer was about restoration.

James and John had a posture of pride.

Barnamaeus had a posture of humility.

One group asked for glory and received a gentle rebuke, while the man who asked for healing was given a miracle.

So here's what I want you to see.

One request was contrary, goes contrary to God's heart, goes contrary to the kingdom of God, goes contrary to the person of Jesus and his teachings and the mission he's given us.

And we can learn to adjust our prayers, our attention, our desires, adjust them to where we, yes, we want to, we're we're we're we're asked to come and make our request known to God.

But keep asking, right?

Keep knocking, keep seeking, keep pursuing.

You are invited to come.

It's not that God is against your open and honest desires being shared with Him.

He loves that.

But the more you are open and honest with yourself and how you pray and how you walk and how you respond to what God is doing, what God is speaking, what what we see, God, how He's working in the life of our church, in the life of our family, in the life of this community.

What you ask God for shapes the story he wants to continue to write through you.

So let me ask this question of you.

What do you want Jesus to do for you?

What do you want Jesus to do for you?

We got a couple in our church that um are going through a really, really difficult season.

And so a lot of you, you know Carol Wizenhunt, Randy Wisenhunt.

And if you don't know them, they're they're they're more active in our social circle campus.

But they've been a part of our church going back further than that.

Um part of our church.

Randy's Randy is such an interesting uh individual to talk to, very, very intelligent man.

Um we were sitting, Carol had surgery earlier this year, I think it was in the summer, and um, and I had uh she was having surgery right up here at Athens Orthopedic, and um I helped build that building.

And uh and so I went in, Randy was in there in the waiting room and surgery area, Carol was having surgery, and what it wasn't a you know, it was all surgery is is a big deal.

Um but it was supposed to be a fairly you know minor thing, and and she would come come out and then go home.

And we're sitting there, and and it was just a great time for Randy and I to catch up.

And so in that conversation, he briefly mentioned, but but quickly moved beyond it.

He mentioned some of the ailments.

That's kind of what we do, I guess, as we get older.

We talk more about our ailments than a lot of other things in life.

And so Randy was sharing with me a couple things going on with him, you know, with his health and all that.

And um, and so lo and behold, that leads us to the end of the summer where Randy ends up with a diagnosis now that is that is not good, that involves cancer, and it's gonna involve probably a surgery or two and some treatment.

And so uh while Randy was in the hospital going through some of his testing and and and uh to get ready for potential treatment and surgery, uh a couple of our pastors were able to go and and just meet with him.

And so the question ended up surfacing in the conversation.

What do you want us to pray for, Randy?

Something like that was asked of Randy.

What do you really want to come out of this?

What what is your what what if you had one question to ask, what would it be?

And Randy, he threw out a couple of quick responses and then and we just kind of remained quiet.

I wanted we wanted to see him wrestle with a hard question.

So after a few more minutes, just kind of bouncing things back and forth, we ask again, Randy, what do you want to see God do through this?

And he said, I really hope that God will use what I'm going through.

Listen to me.

I want to see my children and my grandchildren profess Jesus as Lord.

And and I I think I think Randy at that point we had drilled down to see what was he desperate for.

What was really the most important thing to him?

And so the question is there for us.

Maybe you're not going through a difficult health crisis.

Maybe you're not going through a crisis at all.

But I know that I've learned if we hang out on this planet for any length of time, we're going to go through something that's difficult.

My daughter and her husband are walking through this right now with her husband's family.

His name is Birch.

Her husband's name is Birch, and Birch's family, he's Birch is from Albany.

And so we we actually were with them on Memorial Day weekend, uh, which was the week after my mother passed away.

It was such a blessed time to go and spend.

And Birch's family hosted us, and so we got to spend time, and Birch has an uncle that's kind of like a brother.

They're actually closer in age and could be siblings, and so they've grown up together, but his uncle's a little bit older, and so on on Friday morning when it was time to get up, Matthew didn't wake up.

Somewhere in the middle of the night, something happened, and and I think they're still waiting to know exactly what happened, but you would imagine either a stroke, heart attack, but something in the middle of the night, he went to sleep, had a major event, health crisis event in the middle of the night, but by the time the morning came, his oxygen had been without brain.

Uh his brain had been without oxygen.

Yeah, that's the better way to say it.

Brain maybe that's what I'm struggling with right now.

His brain had been without oxygen for so long that they couldn't do anything.

And so what breaks my heart is to see my daughter have to go into the mode that we all probably have experienced at some point, especially those that have been around a while.

We've all been through something similar to this.

And so his uncle Matthew passed away.

So I'm like, you know, Abigail, it's gonna be okay.

We know where he is, but I'm we're we're encouraging her because she's walking into a situation where she knows, hey, I've got I'm gonna be grieving, but I'm also a vessel to be used to bring comfort.

And so we all are going to go through stuff, and some of it might happen early in life, some of it it might be, see, God is no respecter of persons.

He we all are subject to the fact and reality that our health is going to get one, at some point it's gonna it's gonna it's gonna slow us down, it's gonna it's gonna change our direction a little bit, we're gonna have a crisis, we're gonna have a loss, or we're gonna have a financial situation that's difficult to go through.

But it should not change the deepest desires and affections we have to bring glory to Jesus, to represent Jesus, and to reflect Jesus to a lost and broken world.

And so back to you.

Back to us.

What do you want Jesus to do for you?

What do you want Jesus to do for you?

So in a little bit, a few minutes, I'm gonna ask you to, I'm gonna ask you to turn and in your family, or if you're here with your spouse, so it may be a you know friend or it may be a family member or a family that you have together, I'm gonna give you a chance to talk about it for a few minutes here, because I know what happens.

We walk out of here and we go back to the normal things in life, and we never wrestle with what we're gonna ask for and how God is going to come and work in the midst of meeting our needs, how God is gonna be glorified.

So the question: what do you want Jesus to do for you?

Now let me give you a practical way to kind of process this.

Because normally when we come to a place like this in the life of our church and the life of our community, life of our ministry, we could come out of this morning and we begin to ask questions.

What it, what, Jesus, what do you want me to do for you?

And and what I'm about to ask you to do and consider, we we kind of we kind of think through the lens of me.

Me.

And so a lot of what we ask for reflects our heart, that we're really focused on me or us, me, myself, and I, rather than being focused on the mission, which always includes others.

Always includes others.

When you focus on me, to be honest with you, it's quite shallow.

It has no kingdom advancement quality, and it's temporary.

But when I focus my desires on mission, it moves from temporary to an eternal perspective, and it moves from me-centeredness to mission-centeredness.

And so, hypothetically, if we as a church felt like we needed to go to three services for a short time until we can move into our new facility, hypothetically, if we thought that was a need for this fall, going into next year, because hey, we've got, God has blessed us.

Amen?

Listen, we're going to baptize two more at 11 today.

That's the plan.

We're baptizing two more people today at 11.

And I think we're we're on pace to easily break any records that we've ever had in the history of our church by seeing all these baptisms take place, but we want to keep focused on the mission.

And so hypothetically, if I said, hey, we're going to go to three services, and and I said, those three services are going to be at 8.45, 1015, and 1145.

And so your immediate reaction, our human, our human response is to is to look through the lens of me.

How does that affect me?

How does that affect my family?

How does that affect my schedule?

How does that affect my kids?

How does that affect my um my diet?

How does that affect what all the things that are important to me?

That's our first reaction.

And we do have to consider those things, but what if we shifted where our first reaction is, how does this help the mission?

How does this bring glory to Jesus?

How does this keep me focused on what really matters to God?

And I focused on mission over me, and mission says our community of believers can do more together than we can as individuals or individual families.

We can do more together.

And so, no longer hypothetical.

And listen, let me just kind of help you try to understand the position.

I see all these people that God is working in their lives and God is reaching people.

God is bringing people.

God is using you to invite your neighbors.

God is using you.

God is using all of us together, many of us, and we're seeing him move.

And so I'm thinking, man, we need that building now, but we don't have the building now, but we still are a church now.

And so how do we do now what is going to prepare us for the then so we can maintain or even increase our momentum and seize the opportunity, seize the day that we're in.

And so, you guys probably, I'll say thank you because you've already, most of you are gonna would probably think, I'm gonna show up at 8.45.

Or 850.

Or 855.

So a lot of you guys are the 9 o'clock crowd, early service people, and then we've got the 11 o'clock crowd.

You know, what's gonna be interesting, most people are gonna gravitate toward that 1015 time.

But I don't want you to do that.

I want you to stay and go at 8:45 if you prefer early.

If you're gonna talk about through the lens of me, then I'm just gonna tell you like a parent tells a child.

I don't want to do that.

I really want you to look through the mission, the lens of mission.

And mission says, not what is good for me or my family, but what is best for the kingdom.

Now this isn't, this isn't judgment.

This isn't, you know, me passing, uh uh making an opinion, my opinion known.

I I this isn't what God's this isn't the God's word.

This is Pastor Russ asking a church that has been awesome.

You guys have so blessed us.

Blessed us as a staff, blessed me as a pastor.

You've already done and gone through, you've already wrestled all these things.

A lot of you have sacrificed so we can see a slab poured this past week.

Thursday night, midnight, or Friday morning, 1201, whatever way you want to look at it.

They lined 50 trucks up out here and they poured that slab.

Isn't that exciting?

Let's just stop for a second.

That's exciting.

That is exciting.

And so, that's what I want you to wrestle with.

Jesus said it this way.

Matthew 9, 36 through 38.

He said, when the dis when the crowds, when he saw the crowds, he felt compassion for them because they were distressed and dejected like sheep without a shepherd.

That he said to his disciples, the harvest is abundant, but the workers are few.

And here's what he says: pray this, pray this.

Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into the harvest.

And so what Jesus is saying, he's saying, pray this, pray God for more help.

We we as the in the body of Christ that embody the kingdom of God on this earth as it is in heaven, we reflect Jesus.

And so we he invites us.

Here's what I want you to ask for.

Ask for more help, more work in the harvest.

There are people that need Jesus in our community.

And so we part of what we want to say is hey, let's be.

In our community.

But when we gather, let's come together and let's serve one another.

Let's come together.

And it's a sacrificial mission-centered request over the individualistic me request.

God, how do you want me to serve this fall?

Ask the question through the lens of mission.

You don't look at it through the lens of condemnation or judging, but you look through the lens of mission rather than just through the lens of what's good for me.

And so as we come to this time and conclusion, what I want to do is I'm going to give you about three minutes.

Three or four minutes.

As our band plays behind us, and they're going to play and kind of sing over you a little bit.

And what I want you to do with that three or four minutes is I want you to have a conversation with the people that you come to church with.

Spouse, who's the decision makers in your circle for your family?

Could be you, could be you and your spouse, could be you, your spouse, and you want to give your kids some ownership into it, you can.

But the bottom line is what do we want Jesus to do for us?

But I want you to take this question, listen to me.

Take this discussion, turn it specifically to the three services that we're talking about that would begin the first week after Labor Day.

And I want y'all to talk.

What is the best for us in light of mission?

And certainly you've got to consider what's best for your family.

That's a normal, natural, healthy discussion.

And so would you let's let me just pray over you, and then I'm going to ask you to discuss this with your significant others and family.

Father, we thank you.

We thank you for Bartimaeus.

We thank you for Jesus that is willing to speak the truth.

I thank you for James and John and their impact through the gospel, through through the ministry that they carried out in the first century.

So God, lead us as you want us to make a critical decision.

It may not seem that critical this morning, but it is an important decision for our church family, for what you call us to in this season, over the next several months.

So, Father, guide us in our conversation.

And then lead us over the next few weeks to pray and to be able to ask and to ask through the lens of mission, your glory, your kingdom.

And so, Father, would you bless this time as we respond in prayer?

We respond in conversation with those around us.